AMONG ACADEMIA’S ELITE
Rhodes Scholar feels deep link to city
Nik Carverhill has spent much of his life harvesting the power of ideas.
The 23-year-old academic from Saskatoon will soon join an exclusive club, alongside former U.S. president Bill Clinton and internationally known journalist Rachel Maddow: he’s set to attend the prestigious University of Oxford as a 2018 Rhodes Scholar.
Recently obtaining a degree in urban studies and global affairs from Yale-NUS College in Singapore, Carverhill has been away from Saskatoon for about seven years, having left Walter Murray Collegiate at the age of 16 to attend the Lester B. Pearson United World College in B.C.
Despite the time away, he never lost his Prairie roots.
“I feel an immense connection to the city and the province,” he said in an interview, noting his parents, teachers and coaches worked hard to help him forge an academic base.
While his planned course of study at Oxford is in development studies and focuses on the global South, a region that includes parts of Asia, Latin America and Africa, Carverhill said he hopes to return to Saskatchewan after his studies and use his education and experience to effect change in the community.
“There’s an incredible sort of energy to the place and I think it’s really going places,” he said.
“But I think there’s a lot of challenges in Saskatoon, and Saskatchewan more broadly, that I hope I can be a part of helping to find solutions for.”
Rhodes Scholars have their books and tuition covered and also receive a stipend for living expenses. From the Prairie region, 35 students applied for the scholarship. Carverhill said it’s his understanding that the last Rhodes Scholar from Saskatchewan was selected in 2013.
He hopes to spend a portion of his career working abroad, but will continue his work examining how cities “grow and develop and offer or restrict opportunities for different communities,” he said.
Spatially, Saskatoon is exclusionary, Carverhill said — access to housing, public parks and other amenities is “deeply unequal,” and while the city has grown economically and geographically, certain groups, such as Indigenous people, have not experienced much of the benefit.
Wendy James, Carverhill’s former debate coach, who now works as head of curriculum with Saskatoon Public Schools, said she wasn’t surprised Carverhill was chosen for the scholarship, since he’s always had a “really strong passion for ideas.” She noted he participated in Ukrainian dance and played hockey while excelling as a debater.
“Nik has a very brilliant analytical mind and he’s driven and determined to make a difference,” she said.
After his time debating in Saskatoon, Carverhill went on to debate at the international level, a stage usually occupied by students from affluent private schools.
Although solutions may take the form of better city planning, design and policy, Carverhill has also done work aimed at empowering future generations through Raise Your Voice Canada, a non-profit he co-founded.
Using a combination of slam poetry and debate to connect with vulnerable young Canadians, the program helped them develop the tools to find their voices and influence change in their communities.
“When I talk about the issues that I think are important or that I think are needing attention ... I think it’s equally important not to impose those on other young people,” Carverhill said.